Eien Ni
by Marie Whi Mitshue
Summary: YAOI! Heero & Duo get together - and then Duo is lost and thought dead.... I suck at summaries, please, just READ!
1. Eien Ni 1

Part One of "Eien Ni" by Marie Whi Mitshue (1 of 6)  
  
Author's Note & Warnings: This story –all six parts – are YAOI, SHOUNEN AI, whatever. It is just a story of love. (smile!) It has absolutely NOTHING to do with the timeline or the plot of the series or the OVA/movie.  
  
This is limey, at the most, since it was, like, the second GW story I ever wrote, and at the time I was afraid to even try to write lemon! So the style and characters may be a little… off. *shrug*  
  
I like the pairings of 1x2/2x1 and 3x4/4x3. (Or 1+2/2+1 and 3+4/4+3…I hate trying to figure out which to use, so I just use the ones with the x's!!) I am an unabashed fan of Heero and Duo!  
  
You don't like that, or yaoi, or me, then *don't* read this. And that was fair bloody warning!  
  
Oh, yeah, I don't own'em – I wish I did!!! – They belong to, like, Bandai, Sunrise and/or Sotsu Agency, or something like that, I can't quite remember.  
  
"Eien ni" means "forever", but that's the only Japanese word I'm gonna translate. I don't think I used too many more, and if you read a lot of GW fics, then you should have picked up on some Japanese yourself.  
  
One last thing – feedback is surely appreciated, but if you flame me I will just ignore you! Yours is not the only opinion in the world.  
  
Arigato! And gomen nasai for the big-ass author's note.  
  
May 30, 2002 (dug out and revised; originally wrote Nov. 2000!!!)  
  
//thoughts//  
  
*emphasis* (the more **, the greater the emphasis)  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Duo Maxwell, pilot of Gundam Deathscythe Hell, and self-proclaimed God of Death, adjusted his fantasy novel {1} he was pretending to read, and went back to what he was really doing, indulging in one of his favourite past times: covert Heero-watching.  
  
Heero Yuy was sitting on the other side of the dorm room, working at his laptop. He wore only those black spandex shorts of his, usual green tank top and a damp towel discarded on one of the two beds beyond him. Light from the window across from the Japanese pilot picked out highlights in his dark brown hair, still damp from the shower, and gleamed on his skin, those finely-carved features, his impassive expression and the light all working together to create a beautiful, unreal mask of immobile angle, shadow and light. {2}  
  
And the light gilded the nicely muscled torso and arms that were bare, much to Duo's hidden delight. God, Heero was such a *hottie*!!!  
  
Duo rolled his eyes at himself. He was practically drooling! //Time to actually read this book.// He thought. //If Heero looks up and catches you with that stupid, goofy, lustful expression you have on your face – oh, please, don't try to deny it, that body *merits* such an expression – he'll 'omae wo korosu' you for real, Maxwell.// Duo bit his lip, but couldn't resist one last ogle. //Yeah, one last sizing up. Oh, you are such a hentai! Even if Heero ever thought about something beyond "THE MISSION", he could have the bloody Queen of the World. Why would he want you, Duo- talks-too-much-laughs-too-much-irritating-baka-Maxwell?//  
  
His blue-violet eyes slowly swept up Heero's flat, muscled, washboard tummy – //heh, that lifetime of training was good for *something*// – up the muscled wall of his lean chest, along the curve of his arm, over the bulge of bicep muscle beneath smooth, golden-toned skin, over the slope of Heero's shoulders – //*EEP!*//  
  
A pair of intense cobalt blue eyes caught Duo's violet ones as his gaze went up, and he realised Heero had caught him staring. How much of Duo's last ogle had he caught?  
  
//Not that it matters,// Duo thought, still ensnared in the dark depths of the Japanese pilot's eyes, heart beating furiously, cheeks reddening, //I look like a starving wolf eyeing a defenceless lamb, hunger, craving – wanting – plain on my face.//  
  
"Duo…" Heero began, in that familiar, flat monotone that usually spoke the words 'I will kill you', and Duo surged to his feet, long, chestnut braid slapping against his back and hip as it swung with his movements, dropping the unread novel on the chair he's been draped over. He interrupted Heero, afraid of what his friend was going to say. Or what he was going to do. There was no way to deny he'd been drooling over the Wing ZERO pilot's awesome bod, and he didn't lie, so that left one option – run. Run like hell, and hope the Perfect Soldier didn't feel like hunting him down today.  
  
"Heero, oi, gomen, I, I gotta go, jaa~a!!"  
  
He spun around and started to flee, seeking the closed dorm room door and safety beyond.  
  
Started to, for a hand closed on his braid and jerked him to a stop with a startled, pained yelp and a hasty stumble to keep his balance. {3}  
  
"OWW!!" Duo turned, clutching his scalp and stared back at Heero, who stood behind him, one hand still clasping the tail end of Duo's thick, thigh-length, chestnut braid. //K'so, but he can move fast!// "N..nani, Heero?" He tried to ask casually, but the stammer in his voice betrayed him. //Stupid time to stammer! I talk myself into trouble all the damn time; it should be used to me making a fool of myself, and help me out of it!//  
  
Heero didn't answer, just searched Duo's face and eyes intently, those cobalt eyes burning, making Duo's breath catch, lips parting slightly. The tiny motion refocused Heero's stare to Duo's mouth and the American found himself unable to draw breath at all.  
  
Abruptly, Heero grabbed Duo's shoulders and pushed him up against the door he had almost made it to. One hand move momentarily from Duo to lock the door, and Duo closed his eyes, not wanting to see his doom coming, gulping at the click of the lock that sounded *so* loud in the silence of the room.  
  
//I'mdeadI'mdeadI'mdeadI'mdead,// ran through his head in a crazy little voice that, oddly enough, sounded like Quatre on helium.{4}  
  
Heero's hands tightened on Duo's shoulders, then slid down to curve around Duo's biceps.  
  
//He's gonna rip me apart,// Duo moaned mentally, //Bye-bye, Deathscythe. Oooooohhhhhh, this is gonna hurt…//  
  
Then Heero's body was pressed roughly against his own, as close as could be, and Duo's eyes flew open in stunned surprise. //What the –?!//  
  
Heero's face was mere millimetres from his own, his breath warm on Duo's cheek. Then Heero's mouth was closing over his and Duo's eyes drifted shut of their own volition as his brain shut off. Heero's mouth moved passionately against his, and then he captured Duo's bottom lip between his teeth, nipping lightly. Duo moaned, and Heero took advantage of the parting of Duo's lips to slip his tongue inside.  
  
Duo's hands rose from his sides to clasp at Heero's slender, muscled waist weakly as Heero utterly ravished his mouth, slowly and thoroughly. If Heero hadn't had him pinned against the door with his body, Duo would have collapsed, because apparently his knees had defected to the enemy and were no longer there.  
  
When Heero finally broke the kiss, both boys were breathing fast and hard, and Duo had a dreamy, dazed expression plastered across his face. His violet eyes opened slowly, and he blushed, for the proof of his arousal was pressing against Heero's thigh.  
  
Then his eyes widened, for he realised he could feel the proof of *Heero's* arousal pressing against his hip.  
  
"H..Heero…" He managed to get out.  
  
Heero's hand rose and he shifted, making a little space between their bodies. He yanked off Duo's thin, black, uniform tie, dropped it, and began to undo Duo's white school uniform shirt.  
  
"Yes, Duo?" He answered, single-mindedly working on the buttons.  
  
"W..what…you…me…I…but…" Duo stammered… then he moaned breathlessly, for Heero had pulled open Duo's now-unbuttoned shirt, bent and was sucking at a nipple.  
  
"…what…are…you…" Duo tried to continue, but Heero's long-fingered hands had slipped under his shirt and was setting his skin on fire as they roamed over him. Not to mention his mouth and tongue moving over his chest. Duo's head fell back against the door as his breathing grew ragged, eyes half-shut.  
  
"…doing…Hee –" His voice died completely when Heero's head moved up, nipping, kissing, licking and sucking at his throat. His teeth nipped at Duo's earlobe, and he growled roughly in Duo's ear.  
  
"If you don't know what I'm doing than you're a bigger baka than I thought, Duo." His voice was husky with desire, soft with emotion. "Do you want me to stop?"  
  
Duo shook his head furiously – he so did *not* want him to stop – and decided to shut up for once and enjoy his unexpected good luck. He wrapped his arms around Heero's bare waist, shuddering as Heero's hands slid down to cup and caress his bottom.  
  
Heero's head came up from the hollow of Duo's throat and he captured Duo's mouth again, hungrily.  
  
"Duo…" He groaned against Duo's mouth. He swooped him up in his arms and dropped him gently onto his bed, kneeling over him. "I want you." Heero said bluntly, voice raspy. "If you have any objection, tell me now. Otherwise, I'm going to make love to you until we're both puddles of useless flesh."  
  
Duo chuckle breathlessly, eyes shining. "It's a start…" He grinned as he tugged Heero down to him.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Duo lay on his back on the rumpled sheets of Heero's bed, long chestnut hair unbound, and falling all over the pillow, sheets and both boys. Heero was curled up to his side, one arm flung around Duo's waist, fingers idly drawing circles on Duo's flushed, dampened bare skin. His other hand was playing with a shining lock of Duo's hair. Heero's head lay against his bare shoulder, and Duo grinned down at his half-asleep lover.  
  
//My lover!!!// He thought again, in joyous disbelief. And who wound have believed that Heero Yuy was a cuddler?! Duo damned well knew that *he* was, but *Heero*…  
  
Oh, well, he wasn't complaining, not by a long shot!  
  
His grin turned goofy as he let the memory of what they had just done was over him, feeling tingles of remembered pleasure. Then he had a thought, one that faded his smile.  
  
"Heero…?" He said softly.  
  
"Ummmm…" Came the reply. "Nani?"  
  
"Was…did you like…was I okay?" He asked in a small voice. *He* had enjoyed himself – that was way too weak a word to describe the way he had felt – and Heero had *seemed* to, but…Duo had never done this before and had no way to judge.  
  
Heero sat up, turning to stare down at Duo.  
  
"What do you mean? Didn't *you* like it?" Heero's surprised expression had faded to his usual, impassive mask.  
  
Duo sat up too, his loose, tangled hair swirling around him. "Oh, God, *yes*, Heero! I…it was the best thing that has ever, **ever**," he repeated fiercely, "happened to me! But…I…you *know* I've never…you were my first," His mind added, //and the only, the only one I'll ever want,// but he didn't say it. "And I wasn't…I'm not sure if I…pleased you…" Duo babbled.  
  
Heero stared at him for a second.  
  
"Duo, what exactly do incoherent moans and gasps mean to you? I assure you I wasn't faking them. I fact, you pleased me so much, they were all I could get out, besides your name."  
  
Duo's cheeks flushed. 'Really?!" He whispered happily. At Heero's nod, Duo pulled the other boy into his arms and buried his face against his neck. "Thank you, Heero." His voice was muffled against Heero's skin.  
  
Heero wrapped his arms around Duo, and rested his cheek against Duo's hair.  
  
"*Thank you*, Duo, for staring at me earlier. I would have never done this otherwise."  
  
Duo snorted with laughter. "Then I wish you had caught me before. This was hardly the first time I drooled over you."  
  
"I hope it won't be the last." Heero said.  
  
"Heero, do you know how hard it was not to stare at you every chance I could? Now that I can do it without worrying that you'll catch me, or kill me if you catch me… I think I'll never do anything else!" Duo giggled.  
  
Heero lifted Duo's head. "What? *Nothing* else?" He teased.  
  
Duo shrugged. "Well," He drawled, pretending to consider, "perhaps you can convince me."  
  
Heero's smile was pure seduction. "Hn. Perhaps I can at that."{5}  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~END OF PART ONE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
{1} If anyone is interested (and that's a big if) the book Duo's not reading is "The Green Rider" by Kristen Britain. It is a very good book and I recommend it to all.  
  
{2} Now that's a mental picture!  
  
{3} And how many times, in how many fics, have Duo been yanked off his feet by someone grabbing his braid? OWW!  
  
{4} Apologies to Quatre.  
  
{5} Oh, I just *bet* he can!!  
  
I decide to translate for those who haven't picked up a little Japanese, or are new to GW:  
  
Omae wo korosu – Heero's trademark line of 'I will kill you'. Unless, of course, you get only the Cartoon Network edited episodes, then it's "I will destroy you'.  
  
Hentai – pervert  
  
Baka – idiot, moron, etc.  
  
Oi – Hey  
  
Gomen – Sorry  
  
Jaa~a! – 'Bye!  
  
K'so (kuso) – Damn  
  
Nani – What? 


	2. Eien Ni 2

Part Two of "Eien Ni" by Marie Whi Mitshue (2 0f 6)  
  
Author's Note's & Warning: YAOI, 1x2x1, a little angst, sap, a little lime.  
  
Don't own'em, just written for fun and enjoyment.  
  
//thoughts//  
  
*emphasis* (the more **, the greater the emphasis)  
  
May 30, 2002  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Duo Maxwell stepped out of the small bathroom attached to the dorm room he and Heero shared to find the room empty and the Japanese pilot gone.  
  
Oh. Heero had a nine o'clock Lit class. That must be where he was.  
  
Duo towelled his long hair, now just damp, instead of soaking from the shower. The towel wound around his hips slipped off and he bent to retrieve it – and winced. Ow, but he was a little –okay, more than a little – sore this morning! Ah, but it was well worth it! Duo grinned sillily… besides, everyone knew the first time hurt.  
  
Duo paused in drying off, as a sudden thought hit him; maybe *he* could do the same thing to *Heero* the next time they…  
  
Duo stooped the thought, but not in time. He turned back to the shower and stepped inside, twisting the cold tap on. He hoped the ice-cold spray could take away the throbbing ache going through him. He couldn't go to class with a bulge in his trousers, could he?{1}  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Heero Yuy absently wrote down the note and questions, but was barely aware of the teacher or even the classroom and students around him. A certain violet-eyed, braided, bewitching baka kept intruding on his thoughts.  
  
Heero shifted in his seat, cutting off the image that formed in his mind, enticingly, of Duo naked and in his bed, before he could get more than a twinge between his legs. Dammit, Lit class was no place to be thinking of Duo!  
  
He tried to concentrate on the lesson, but it was no use. K'so, Duo was **his**, he'd claimed him last night, and he could – *would* – have him again, later! //So just get him off your mind, Yuy!// He told himself firmly.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Duo groaned as Sanoki caught up with him. Damn, Heero was just stepping out of his Lit class up ahead; they could have had a little moment together, one that the other students milling around the corridor wouldn't even detect, but not now. Not with Headmaster's daughter Sanoki Dori hovering.  
  
"Duo! Hi!" Sanoki blinked flirty, brown eyes up at him, dark hair swinging, one small hand latching onto his, linking her fingers with his.  
  
"Uh…" Sanoki had never done this before. She had flirted with him, but now she was  
  
glomped onto him as close as…Relena glomped onto Heero, whenever she could catch him before he ran, that is.  
  
Sanoki captured his braid and tugged his head down so swiftly that Duo didn't have time to react, surprise and shock slowing his reflexes. All he caught was a glimpse of Heero's wide, shocked, *hurt* cobalt eyes as Sanoki's mouth latched onto his.  
  
Duo pulled away, disentangling the giggling Sanoki, eyes sweeping madly around to find Heero.  
  
He had a swift impression of Heero's frozen face and burning eyes before Heero spun, his whole body tense, and started to run off down the hall, in the direction of the school lobby and the street doors.  
  
"Heero, matte!" Duo called, knowing his face was desperate, knowing his *voice* was desperate. "**Wait!!**"  
  
Heero didn't even slow, and he was a *fast* runner.  
  
"Duo, I –" Sanoki began, shamed realisation on her face, her gaggle of friends off to the side – looks like she kissed him on a fucking *dare*!! – watching, all the mirth gone from their faces now.  
  
But Duo ignored her as irrelevant and unimportant, running after his friend, partner and lover, shedding books, backpack and binder for more speed.  
  
"**HEERO!!!**" He yelled, uncaring of the audience of students and teachers. He didn't care if the whole damned school found out about him and Heero, but if the Wing ZERO pilot got out that door, Duo seriously doubted he'd ever be able to find him again.  
  
Heero was almost to the doors, students, even the adults, moving so quickly from his path that Duo knew he had that *LOOK* on his face, that seriously pissed, homicidal, I'm-gonna-omae-wo-korosu-for-real-get-the-FUCK- out-of-the-way Look.  
  
Duo had to stop him.  
  
"***AI SHITERU, HEERO!!!!***" He cried out at the top of his lungs, every person in earshot stopping to stare at the braided bot yelling out his love for another boy for everyone to hear.  
  
Even Heero. He skidded to a stop and turned slowly, face an impassive stony mask, eyes icy and shuttered.  
  
Duo stopped inches from him, heart in his throat, eyes wide and chest heaving.  
  
A teacher stepped froward, face disapproving, even a little disgusted – and Sanoki stepped forward, between him and Heero and Duo.  
  
"Leave them be, Yakan-sama. Daddy wouldn't like you interfering." She pleaded…and was obeyed. She was the daughter of the Headmaster, and, in this school at least, that position had some power. Headmaster Dori was rumored to be very tolerant…and very hard on intolerance.  
  
Neither Heero or Duo noticed.  
  
"I don't believe you." Heero said in the flat, lifeless monotone that he reserved when he retreated completely behind his Perfect Soldier mask, or was truly was going to make good on his 'omae wo korosu' line.  
  
"Heero, I do. Ever since we met. I do *love* you."{2} Duo put every drop of emotion he had ever felt for the boy before him in his voice, uncaring of the fact that he was baring his soul before a largely unfeeling audience. "I didn't know Sanoki was going to kiss me –"  
  
Sanoki interrupted, blanching a little as Heero's Glare of Death switched from Duo to her, but she managed to get the word out. "He really didn't. Sam and Ashiko dared me to kiss the next guy that came along, and it was Duo, I'm sorry, I didn't know about you two or I wouldn't have, please don't get mad at Duo, look what he's doing, most people are mean to somebody who's different, and he's baring his heart to you in front of them." She said in a rush, all the quicker to escape Heero's Glare.  
  
Heero looked back to Duo, face and eyes still unrelentingly cold.  
  
"You're in love with me?" He asked in a quiet, emotionless voice.  
  
Duo nodded his head miserably, every answer he needed in Heero's frozen face, frozen voice, frozen eyes. Heero didn't love him, last night had probably been about physical gratification alone on Heero's part, and he was probably gonna kill him for exposing him to the school as a hentai…  
  
Heero abruptly grabbed Duo's uniform shirtfront and dragged him past Mr. Yakan, and into the empty chemistry lab. He slammed the door in the astonished teacher's face, teacher and students staring in through the window that made up the upper half of the door.  
  
"Yuy, you can't beat him up on school grounds!" One of the boys outside yelled. "Take the fucking pervert outside and kick his –"  
  
Mr. Yakan sharp, " *Mr.* Pike! Watch it!" – and the boos and hisses at the boy from Sanoki's group – shut the loudmouth up.  
  
Heero ignored it all.  
  
"*You* love *me*." He said again.  
  
"YES, Heero!!" Duo snarled, embarrassed, upset, heart sore and wanting to bawl like a baby at the crumbling of his dreams of forever with Heero. "So, do what you're gonna do, leave me, beat me up, kill me, whatever! Just get it over with!" He shut his eyes in misery, trying to keep from crying in front of Heero.  
  
And the day had started out so well…  
  
"You stupid baka." Heero's voice growled…then his lips were crushing Duo's in a demanding kiss, his arms yanking him against his chest.  
  
Loud cheers – only a couple of boos (it was good to have a tolerant Headmaster, you certainly didn't anger a headmaster who punished bigots) – came from outside the room, from the avidly watching students. Mr. Yakan raised an eyebrow and walked away.  
  
When Heero pulled away, both boys were flushed and in desperate need for air.  
  
Heero brushed his fingertips over Duo's warm cheek.  
  
"You are *mine*, Duo Maxwell. Eien ni. **Mine**." Heero pledged. His bright, impassioned eyes added the words he couldn't say: Ai shiteru. I love you.  
  
"…forever…" Duo repeated in a whisper that was a sacred promise.  
  
Then Heero laced his fingers with Duo's and yanked open the door, stepping out into the hallway holding Duo's hand. His eyes turned cold and swept around the crowd, daring anyone to make a comment.  
  
Sanoki winked at them, grinning.  
  
"Get back to class." Heero growled at the crowd and strode off towards his and Duo's next class, pulling the idiotically grinning American along with him by their entwined hands.  
  
Duo glanced back as Heero pulled him along.  
  
"*Thank you*, Sanoki!!" He called heartfeltly.  
  
Sanoki just waved at him, then grinned as Heero's muttered, "Baka.", floated back to her ears.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~END OF PART TWO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
{1} Hehehehehehe!!!  
  
{2}Yeah…the first time they met…when he put two bullets in Heero…Uh, Duo, if that's the way you show you've fallen in love, stay away from…me…wait, what the HELL am I saying?! Duo, you can come near me anytime, bullets or no bullets!!  
  
I decided to translate for those who haven't picked up some Japanese, or those new to GW:  
  
Baka – idiot, moron, etc.  
  
K'so (kuso) – Damn  
  
Matte – wait  
  
Omae wo korosu – Heero's trademark line "I will kill you'. OR, if you only get the edited Cartoon Network version, 'I will destroy you'.  
  
Ai shiteru – 'I love you'. The madly, deeply, truly, forever, eternal sort of love.  
  
–Sama – an honorific given to those superior to you, very respectful.  
  
Hentai - Pervert 


	3. Eien Ni 3

Part Three of "Eien ni" by Marie Whi Mitshue (3 of 6)  
  
1 Author's Warning: a little blood, some emotional and physical pain…into every story a little tragedy & angst must fall… gomen…blame the munchkin muse in my head, the one who's a tragic romantic – great love won at great cost, after great tragedy… sigh…  
  
//thoughts//  
  
*emphasis* (the more **, the greater the emphasis)  
  
flashback/memories  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2  
  
Heero Yuy sat hunched in the middle of the Quatre's living room floor. The room was dark but for moon- and starlight that came in the big picture window and the little light that leaked from the hallway. The room was cold, too, but Heero didn't care. Didn't notice. He was too numb to notice.  
  
He was dressed in his usual black spandex shorts and green tank top, and someone had thrown a blanket over his shoulders – probably the ever- compassionate Quatre.  
  
He huddled beneath it, face slack, cobalt blue eyes disturbingly blank. There was a bandage on his arm, one on his leg, a bruised scratch up one cheekbone. Blood was slowly seeping through the bandage on his thigh. Clutched in his hands was a faded, black t-shirt that belonged to Duo.  
  
Images and sounds flashed over and over through his mind, horrid memories that wouldn't leave him alone:  
  
Deathscythe Hell stumbling forward as a bad missile strike exploded at its back, Duo's pained gasp echoing over the Comm link.  
  
"Duo?!" He called.  
  
"H..Heero, I'm alrigh-" his koi's voice came back as Deathscythe Hell spun, but a second missile strike sent the gundam tumbling off the high, sheer cliff the Oz base was on.  
  
"DUO!!!" Heero yelled anguishedly as he watched Deathscythe Hell free-fall to smash into the rocks at the shoreline so very far below.  
  
"…H..H..Heer…o…" Duo's choked voice whimpered over the Comm as Heero in Wing Zero flew down towards the damaged gundam. Heero could practically hear the blood bubbling out of Duo's mouth, hear the screaming pain of his injuries, his heart shrieking at the agony in his koibito's feeble voice.  
  
"I'm coming, Duo! Hold on!"  
  
"…NO!…Deathscythe's gonna…blow…Heero, I lov-"  
  
Duo's tormented, pain-filled sob was cut off as Deathscythe exploded, and the shockwave buffeted Wing Zero and slammed him into the cliff wall.  
  
"***DUO!!!!***" Heero screamed before he blacked out.  
  
"Heero…"  
  
For a second, Heero thought it was Duo's voice. His head snapped up, towards the figure silhouetted in the doorway. For a second, Duo's beloved, smiling face and lithe-muscled body was superimposed on the person in the doorway. Then it faded, and Heero found himself blinking up at a concerned looking Quatre Raberba Winner.  
  
"What?!" He snarled harshly at the blond Arabian.  
  
"Can I … get you anything?"  
  
"Yeah." Heero whispered, "A brown-braided baka who talks too much, smiles too much, eats too much, moves too much, jokes too much and who is the only one who ever touched my heart, and holds my soul. Failing that, get the fuck away from me." There was no emotion in Heero's voice, only crushing, soul–killing loss and emptiness.  
  
For an anguished moment, his and Duo's voices echoed through his mind:  
  
"You are *mine*, Duo Maxwell. Eien ni. **Mine**." Heero pledged.  
  
"…forever…"Duo repeated, his whisper a sacred promise.  
  
//Duo, you *promised*…//Heero's mind howled silently, //…forever…//  
  
"Heero…" Quatre was at a loss – what should he do? He could see the darkness rising in Heero's eyes – of all of them, Heero had always been the one too close to the shadow. But his relationship with Duo had seemed to help him, seemed to free the soul imprisoned by the thick barrier of his cold and terrible training, seemed to help him begin to understand and treasure his emotions. Only Duo Maxwell, self-proclaimed God of Death, had ever reached past those barriers. Only Duo had ever been able to bring Heero into the light. Only Duo. Without him…  
  
A familiar hand touched his shoulder and he turned to see Trowa Barton standing beside him. His one visible emerald eye, the other obscured by his long, razored, light brown bangs, was as full of worry as Quatre had ever seen it, although no trace of it was on his face.  
  
"Heero—" Trowa started, but stopped as Heero moved.  
  
Heero surged to his feet, blanket fluttering to the floor, Duo's shirt still in his clenched fists. There was barely suppressed, grief- induced violence, almost madness, in his every move, in his rigid muscles, in his glittering, cobalt eyes. Both of the other gundam pilots were well aware of the destructive abilities of Heero-The-Perfect-Soldier-Yuy.  
  
"Leave me alone!" Heero growled.  
  
"They tried to pull up the remains of Deathscythe Hell." Trowa spoke as if Heero hadn't.  
  
A quick, indrawn breath was all the reaction they got from Heero.  
  
Heero froze, imagining Duo's beautiful body twisted and burned and torn by the exploded gundam.  
  
"And?!" Heero spit out finally.  
  
"It was gone. The tide must have sucked it out. The Managnacs are dredging, but the current there…" Trowa's voice trailed off.  
  
Heero closed his eyes, in his mind's eye seeing Duo's battered and lifeless body being pulled into the sea's frigid and uncaring embrace, his braid swirling up in the current to brush against his bruised, scratched face, those beautiful violet eyes open, inanimate and blank.  
  
It was more than he could bear. It was an unendurable, smothering pain that engulfed him like a wave of molten, burning lava.  
  
He spun, and drove his fist into the wall. It went in past his wrist, sending plaster and paint dust and fragments all over. He hauled it out, and did it again and again and again… Not a sound escaped him, but silent tears streamed down his cheeks.  
  
"Trowa, he's hurting himself!" Quatre gulped to his love.  
  
"Heero's hurting period, Little One." Trowa told him. "If this is the only way he can deal with it…"  
  
Heero stopped abruptly, breathing harsh and wild. Soundless tears still slipped down his face. He turned towards them, blood dripping down his injured, plaster-dusted fist, but he never even felt it. His eyes were glittering with dark emotion.  
  
"No, there is another way I can deal with it." Heero's voice was dead. Not the 'omae wo korosu' monotone the others were used to, but *dead*, completely, utterly devoid of humanity. "I can kill every member of Oz and Romafeller, every single person responsible for this war. Without this war, Duo would never have been trained as a gundam pilot and never would have come to earth to die."  
  
"But…you never would have met him. Think how terrible that would have been." Quatre said.  
  
Heero's blank eyes turned to him. "I rather would have never met him than have him dead. I would rather have never let him in my heart, and remained focused only on my missions, remained a frozen simulation of a human being than this, what has happened." Heero said in that same humanity-deadened voice.  
  
"Heero…that way lies madness and death. That's *all* that revenge leads to." Trowa warned calmly.  
  
Heero's eyes slowly turned to Trowa. A sinister little smile that was more grimace than smile twisted Heero's lips. "Revenge is what I want, Trowa. Revenge leads to madness, madness leads to death, and death leads…to Duo…" His voice got softer as he spoke until he spoke Duo's name in a bare whisper of sound.  
  
"Heero!" Quatre snapped, appalled and frantic.  
  
Heero lifted the shirt that was still wrapped around his unbloodied hand. He was still crying, but he didn't seem to notice.  
  
He walked towards the doorway, then paused when the two other pilots didn't move. He blinked dead eyes at them from in under messy brown bangs. " I do not want to hurt you, but if you do not move, I will." He told them in that cold, deadened voice that Trowa was suspecting was going to become permanent – like the hole in Heero's soul that only Duo's presence could fill.  
  
"And what would Duo think of that?" Quatre asked, zeroing in on the one thing that might get through to the devastated Japanese pilot.  
  
Heero blinked uncertainly and the barest glimmer of light came back into those shadowed cobalt eyes.  
  
He could just *see* Duo standing behind Quatre and Trowa, shaking his head at Heero's words, at his intentions, beautiful face sorrowful, but suffused with his love for him. His sweet mouth curved in a little, endearing smile, so different from his broad, jovial grins, a smile that was meant for Heero alone.  
  
"D..Duo..?!" He gasped.  
  
Quatre and Trowa exchanged worried looks, looking from the empty hall beyond them to Heero and back again.  
  
Duo's lips moved, but no sound issued forth. But Heero *knew* what he was saying: 'Ai shiteru, Heero. Please don't do this. Get away from the darkness. Oh, my Heero. Don't do this. Ai shiteru eien ni. I'm yours, forever. Please, koi, don't do this…'  
  
Then the image of Duo faded. Heero knew it was from his own tortured mind, but he also knew it was what Duo would have said. Duo would have been trying to keep him from heading down the path of hatred, vengeance and self-destruction he was about to start on.  
  
"Duo!" He moaned. He sank to his knees, then curled up on the floor, wrapped around himself, Duo's shirt pressed to his face, weeping.  
  
Gentle hands clasped his shoulders and his arms, and Trowa and Quatre huddled with the stricken, hopeless and bereft Heero, grieving with him for the loss of the most jovial, the most carefree of them.{1}  
  
~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Duo Maxwell groaned against the pain blaring in his head and slowly opened his eyes. He was bloodied and dishevelled, rips and burns in his customary black and white preacher outfit, his braid matted with dried blood in spots, and partially unravelled. He had a huge, nasty black-blue- purple bruise on his forehead and temple, his bottom lip was split and his right wrist hung at a wrong angle and throbbed like a sonuvabitch.  
  
"I…I'm alive…" Duo coughed out. "Holy Mother, I'm friggin' ALIVE!!!" He laughed.  
  
He turned his head gingerly, looking for Heero. "My Soldier Boy musta hauled me outta the wreck. My poor Deathscythe." He mumbled to himself…then he realised he was on the none-too clean floor of a dim, dank room that was only a little bigger than a broom closet.  
  
"What the-? Heero? Quat? Tro? Wu?" He called, starting to rise, but stopped and clapped his hand with the fractured wrist to his chest, not noticing the pain shooting up his arm as his movements sent brilliant, hot arcs of pain through his torso, like live wires digging into his flesh. "Broken…ribs…" He coughed to himself, unbroken hand flying to his mouth…then stared in horror at the scarlet wetness that stained his fingers. "Oh, God, oh, God…."  
  
Suddenly, a hidden speaker crackled to life.  
  
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Zero-Two. You may have guessed by now that you have been captured…by the Romafeller Foundation. You will tell us where to find the other gundam pilots and what defences they have."  
  
"Wouldn't matter if I did," Duo spit out defiantly – along with a spray of blood. "They would have changed locations when I was captured."  
  
"Oh, dear Zero-Two. They all think you are dead. This is the Comm logs from the base you attacked. They managed to break your communications encryption towards the end of the battle."  
  
There was a moment of static, then:  
  
"Duo?!" Heero's voice called worriedly.  
  
"H..Heero, I'm alrigh-" his own voice came back, a little pained.  
  
"DUO!!!" Heero's voice yelled anguishedly.  
  
"…H..H..Heer…o…" Duo's choked voice whimpered over the speakers, feeble and full of agony.  
  
"I'm coming, Duo! Hold on!" Heero's frantic voice said.  
  
"…NO!…Deathscythe's gonna…blow…Heero, I lov-"  
  
An explosion cut off Duo's tormented, pain-filled sob.  
  
"***DUO!!!!***" Heero's voice screamed…then died abruptly.  
  
Trowa's voice came over the Comm. "I got Wing Zero! Heero's hurt pretty badly. He almost slid down that cliff."  
  
"What about Duo?" Quatre's pained voice said.  
  
"…Deathscythe Hell's…exploded. Not even Heero could have survived through that…" Wufei's controlled voice came over the Comm.  
  
"We have to make sure!" Quatre snapped.  
  
"We have to get out of here. They're sending up reinforcements, too many mobile dolls. We can send someone back when the situation cools down to collect…the remains. Quatre, look for yourself, he *can't have* survived that…" Wufei's voice was strained with the effort it took to control it.  
  
"Duo…" An almost inaudible, unconscious moan came from Heero's Comm.  
  
"…Let's go…" Quatre sighed sadly.  
  
"You *bastards*!!" Duo swore and surged to his knees – but the sudden rush of movement and anger sent a fresh wave of pain through his chest and he toppled back to the floor, coughing up and choking on blood.  
  
He was vaguely aware of some people rushing to keep him alive for interrogation as the world blacked out around him, but his only thoughts were for the heartrending despair he had heard in Heero's voice.  
  
//Ai shiteru, Heero. Eien ni. I'm still alive, I'm still here. I'm not breaking my promise that easily.// He swore silently to himself as he passed out. //I'm coming back to you, koi. Don't give up hope. Don't…//  
  
End of Part Three  
  
{1} WAAAHHHH!! Sniff! Sob! I hate sad parts!  
  
I decided to translate for those who haven't picked up a little Japanese or are new to GW:  
  
Koibito (koi) – lover, love, boyfriend 


	4. Eien Ni 4

Part Four of "Eien ni" By Marie Whi Mitshue (4 of 6)  
  
Author's note: Sorry, but I can't remember if Romafeller faction and Treize faction fighting fits in with the supposed place in the Gundam Wing Timeline that this story is at, so…ignore the timeline! Timeline, What Timeline? Also, some angst, violence… interrogation… sigh… when can I go back to the sweet and touching plot-lines? Why must the munchkin in my head that is my Muse make me write this…  
  
//thoughts//  
  
*emphasis* ( the more **, the greater the emphasis)  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
There was no body to bury.  
  
But Quatre, sweet and thoughtful Quatre, had erected a headstone for Duo beneath an oak tree the American had loved so much, on one of the Winner Estates's grounds. The blond Arabian had said quietly that if any of them should fall in battle, this was were their bodies – or monuments, if there were no remains – would be placed. If they agreed.  
  
All of them did.  
  
That was where Heero was now, sat on the simple stone bench beside Duo's grave.  
  
The Japanese boy wore black – in mourning, or perhaps in memory of Duo's black clothes – trousers, long-sleeved shirt, jacket, and boots. His head was bowed, and he stared at the flowers he had placed on Duo's grave: yellow roses of their Friendship Eternal, White carnations for their Pure and Ardent Love, Larkspur for Duo's Open Heart, pink rosebuds for his Beauty and Youth, Heliotrope for Heero's Devotion, and Forget-me-nots for their True Love.  
  
The words on the headstone were simple:  
  
Duo Maxwell  
  
Died AC 196  
  
Honoured Soldier  
  
Cherished Friend  
  
1 Immortal Beloved{1}  
  
The words meant nothing to Heero, even though he stared at them intently.  
  
"I miss you Duo." He whispered to his lover's grave. "It's only been a week. Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei miss you too. They've been watching me like a hawk and I overheard Quatre asking if they shouldn't disable my self- detonation switch. But I wouldn't do that. Not until all those who caused your death are screaming in Hell. Then, maybe…"  
  
Heero knelt on the damp grass in the twilight and hugged the cold, marble headstone, trying to pretend it was the energetic, laughing, light- hearted young boy he loved.  
  
The cold of the marble stung his cheek, and spoiled the fantasy he was trying to weave, and hot tears trickled down upon the stone.  
  
~~~~~~~  
  
Duo Maxwell stared up at the ceiling he was barely able to see in the dimness of his cell. Fresh wounds added now to the pain throbbing from injuries a week old and barely healing.  
  
//How can they heal when they keep getting reopened by the interrogators?// Duo mused to himself.  
  
He rolled over carefully on his side and let his mind slip into the dreamworld that he'd been using to keep from telling the interrogators anything:  
  
Heero shifted in their bed and drew him nearer.  
  
"My beautiful, annoying baka…" Heero's voice drawled in his ear.  
  
Duo started to turn, face indignant. "Oi! I object-" His objections to being called an idiot were smothered by Heero's mouth descending to his.  
  
2 Duo wrapped his arms around his itooshi and—  
  
(The sudden opening of the cell door and the toe of someone's combat boot thudding painfully against Duo's leg snapped him out of his wistful daydream.  
  
"Dammit!" He snarled, incensed, at the torturer and guards that stared, stone-faced, down at him, "I was just getting to the good part!"  
  
They dragged him up, ignoring his snarls and his noises of pain, and headed for the interrogation cell.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
Heero sat once more on the bench beside Duo's grave. It was twilight all around him, and rain fell softly on him, all around him, locking him in a dim, wet world where only pain and Duo's absence existed. He wore black yet again, and his clothes clung wetly to him. His head was bowed, dark, wet bangs clinging to his face, and, despite the rain, the droplets that slid down his cheeks were clearly tears.  
  
A single flower – a globe Amaranth, the flower that stood for Unfading Love – was clutched in his hands, bent and bowed by the rain.  
  
He slipped from the bench onto his knees, not even noticing the wet grass beneath him. He cradled the rain-soaked blossom to his cheek, wishing it was the hand of his lover, the touch he'd never feel again…  
  
~~~~~~  
  
Chang Wufei found Heero where he had expected to find him: curled up on Duo's bed. The five pilots lived here at one of Quatre's safehouses when they weren't on mission. So most of their things were here.  
  
Wufei, Trowa and Quatre had had to go to the boarding school Duo and Heero had been at with him to get their things. Heero had been too shell- shocked to be of much help. They had had to explain since Heero's battered appearance, numb reactions and Duo's absence had brought up too many questions.  
  
Quatre had explained to the Headmaster that Heero and Duo had been mugged in the city…and that Duo was dead.  
  
The Headmaster was shocked and sympathetic. Ever since the day Sanoki Dori had kissed Duo and the truth about the two boys had come out, the Headmaster had taken an interest in them. They had never done anything but hold hands in public – besides the kiss in the chemistry lab on the day Sanoki kissed Duo – and they were well behaved, discreet, nice boys, in Headmaster Dori's opinion. He wasn't going to expel them just for following their hearts.  
  
Heero had promptly put his and Duo's things in Duo's room at Quatre's. If he wasn't on a mission, then he was at Duo's gravesite or in Duo's room.  
  
Wufei stood in the doorway and stared at Heero. The Japanese boy lay on his side, one of Duo's black, silk pyjama tops clutched to his chest, curled around a black pillow that still smelled of Duo, since Heero refused to let anyone wash it. The last maid who tried was undergoing counselling for being traumatised. He was still dressed in the damp clothes he'd wore out to visit Duo's grave. Hell, he'd still be out there in the rain if Quatre and Trowa hadn't gently coaxed him into the car and back to this safe house. His hair was almost dry now, but wildly tousled, falling over his eyes in little spikes, rather than his usual bangs.  
  
"Heero." Wufei said quietly.  
  
"Hn?" That trademark grunt. That's all any of them had been able to get out of him in a week and a half.  
  
"Were getting some kind of live feed from a Romafeller base. Trowa's trying to decrypt it. Looks like there are Trieze faction troops hiding among the Romafeller faction."  
  
When Heero remained silent and didn't stir, Wufei hid a sigh. Damn him!  
  
A soldier shouldn't permit love inside. This is what it led to.  
  
Although Wufei could certainly see how Heero had fallen in love with Duo – He cut that thought off before it even finished. Duo Maxwell was *dead*. Even if he had been alive, Duo loved Heero with all his heart, mind, body and soul.  
  
"Trowa could use your help. You're better on the comp-"  
  
A sudden disbelieving cry, sounding like Quatre, from downstairs cut the Chinese boy off. Then Quatre screamed out, "**HEERO!!!** Get down here! You *have* to see this!" The normally soft-spoken and well-mannered boy's voice was commanding, brooking no opposition.  
  
Heero shoved himself to his feet and trotted listlessly after Wufei.  
  
In the den, Trowa sat at the desk, laptop before him, Quatre hanging over his shoulder. Trowa turned and rose as Heero and Wufei entered. The Latin pilot pushed Heero into the seat.  
  
"This is a live feed from inside a base controlled by the Romafeller faction," Trowa hastily explained. "The Treize soldiers said something about a miracle to us. They… they showed us –"  
  
Trowa stopped as the dark, shifting picture on the screen cleared to show four soldiers hauling a snarling, defiant and dishevelled Duo Maxwell into what was obviously an interrogation room.  
  
Heero stared, not believing…then he leaned forward and clutched the sides of the laptop, eyes locked onto the most beautiful sight he had ever seen…never mind that his koi's clothes and skin were splattered with fresh and dried blood, clothes ripped and burned in spots, ugly bruises up his cheek, temple and forehead. Never mind that his braid was partially undone, snarled, tangled and matted in places with dried blood. Never mind that his left wrist was crudely splinted, and he was hunched in pain, hand clutching his chest.  
  
The audio came on as the guards manhandled Duo into a chair and strapped him down. Duo, of course, was chattering at them, fast and furious.  
  
"You know you'll never get anything from me. I won't tell you a damned thing. You start hurting me and off I go-e-o," The crazy American sang, "Into my little safe-world in my mind. And there I… ammmm … safeee…and you can't get meeee…" He smirked at them despite the bruises and scratches on his face and sang the last words at them in a taunting voice. Then he stuck his tongue out at them and crossed his eyes.  
  
"Zero-Two, you'll tell us everything we want to know today." One of the men growled.  
  
"BBBWHAHAHAHAHA!!" Duo barked out that trademark insane laugh of his that he reserved for slicing enemy mobile suits apart, or for when he was teasing Wufei. "*I* am Shinigami! *You* are nothing but a piece of shi-"  
  
A fist connecting with his torso shut him up; it also sent a horridly large amount of blood fountaining down his chin as he gagged on pain.  
  
"You see," the man went on, "We have one of your friends. Zero-One."  
  
Duo's head snapped up, face paling beneath the bruises and blood. "*I don't believe you!!*" He snarled.  
  
One of the men pressed a button on the wall speaker and agonised screaming came from it. Who ever it was *did* sound like Heero, but, obviously, it wasn't him, since at that moment Heero was watching from Quatre's.  
  
But Duo had no way of knowing that.  
  
Duo's face went dead white and he uttered a strangled noise somewhere between a sob and a shriek. It sounded like Heero, maybe, but how could he be sure? But if it was, what terrible things they had to be doing for *Heero* to be screaming like that!  
  
"I…I don't believe its him!" Duo gulped, but his voice was uncertain.  
  
"You co-operate and we'll let you see him." One of guards said.  
  
"No. If it is him..he.. wouldn't want me to –" Duo stopped as the screams peaked, and then the screamer shrieked out, "GOD… *DUO!!* …  
  
aaaahhhhA AAAHHHHHHH!!"  
  
Duo's face contorted into a terrified, unsure expression. A tear slipped down his cheek, making a track in the blood and dirt on his skin. His lips moved, but his voice was too low for the sound pick-up. But all four gundam pilots watching could make out what he had said: 'Heero, oh, dear God, Heero!'  
  
"I..won't…tell you anything!" Duo rasped out. "If that *is* Hee - Zero One, he wouldn't want me to endanger the other pilots. If that's *not* him, then telling you will endanger him. No. I won't!" Duo groaned and yelped as one of the men stuck a needle in his arm and emptied the contents into him.  
  
That man and one of the guards moved away from Duo, but the pick-up still had them.  
  
"What's that, Doc?" The guard asked of the man who'd injected Duo.  
  
The doctor smirked. "He'll tell us where the other gundam pilots are soon. What I gave him will give him hallucinations and make him susceptible to suggestion. So, if I tell him he's seeing his friend being tortured or dying before him, it'll be as real to him as if it was truly happening."  
  
The picture split in two: Duo lolling in the interrogation chair, the drug suffusing through his system, on one side, and the Treize faction soldier who was sending this on the other.  
  
"Get out of your location, if Zero Two knows of it." He told the gundam pilots. "I'm sending you the co-ordinates of this base. He won't last much longer. I'm amazed he lasted this long!" The screen flickered, then slowly faded out, the last thing coming over it was Duo's sudden scream. "***HEERO!!!***"  
  
Heero jumped to his feet, eyes memorising the co-ordinates instantly as they flitted across the black screen. Then he tore out of the room, Quatre, Trowa and Wufei right behind him.  
  
  
  
{1} This last is inspired by a note found in Ludwig Van Beethoven's things after his death; "My angel, my all, my very self… my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved…I can live only wholly with you or not at all…" This is not all of it. If you wish to know more about the greatest composer who ever lived, watch the movie "Immortal Beloved".  
  
Itooshi – beloved, sweetheart, darling, etc.  
  
Shinigami – God Of Death  
  
End of Part Four 


	5. Eien Ni 5

Part Five of "Eien ni" By Marie Whi Mitshue (5 of 6)  
  
1 Author's Warning: Some pain, some blood, some despair…*sigh* … things'll get better soon… or I'm gonna have to kill the munchkin in my head! Hurry, Heero, Duo needs you…K'so, I get into this too much! I wrote it, you think it wouldn't affect me so…*sniff* …  
  
//thoughts//  
  
*emphasis* (the more **, the greater the emphasis)  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Duo Maxwell groaned and yelped as the interrogator stuck a needle in his arm. Almost immediately, everything around him went soft-focused and fuzzy. Oh, wait, that was his eyesight… what the hell had…they …given … oh, booooy, he felt all tingly and distant.  
  
"Zero-Two, hear your friend screaming? He needs you to help him. Can't you hear the pain he's in?" A low voice asked in his ear, loud in the silent room.  
  
And suddenly, Duo could. Heero was screaming, tortured voice raw enough to tear his throat, begging as Heero had never begged, crying for Duo to help him, to stop the terrible pain…  
  
"***HEERO!!!***" Duo screamed. "NO!! Leave him alone! *PLEASE, leave my itooshi alone!!!*"  
  
"Eh?!!" The low voice gasped in surprise. "Your* itooshi*?!? Well, well, we can certainly use this."  
  
Duo tried to break his bonds, but he was far, far too weak. His broken ribs and his fractured wrist throbbed distantly, but it was if they belonged to someone else.  
  
"Listen, your itooshi is here, lying before you on the floor, bleeding and weak." The voice murmured in Duo's ear.  
  
And Duo could see him, sprawled on the cold, dirty floor, in torn black spandex shorts and nothing else, sleek, muscled body awash with blood and mottled with terrible bruises and injuries. He was on his stomach, arms and legs outspread, face turned towards Duo, eyes closed, dark brown, messy hair matted with blood.  
  
"***Heero!!***" Duo gasped out despairingly.  
  
Heero's cobalt eyes opened and they turned slowly to Duo, bright blue pools of agony and fear.  
  
"D… Duo…" The hallucination whispered through split and bloodied lips. "… help… me… get… the..t..the …others… please… HELP ME…!!"  
  
The sly voice muttered in Duo's ear again. "Aren't you going to help him? He's dying –"  
  
Heero moaned and clutched at his side, a pool of red spreading beneath him, oozing over and between his fingers.  
  
"- and only getting the other gundam pilots here will save him."  
  
"… Duo… my… Duo.." The hallucination gasped. "Don't… let me… die like … this…"  
  
"Heero! Oh, God, I can't! Save him, please. I'll… I'll …do … anything …*JUST SAVE HIM*!!!" Duo screamed and tears tracking down his face, desperate and frantic, despite the drug haze that hung over him.  
  
"Where are the other gundam pilots?" That low, insidious voice asked in Duo's ear.  
  
Duo bowed his head, tears dripping off his face. "In… at… co- ordinates 305… by… by 298, in the… the JAP area…" He told them the location of one of the more frequently used safe houses. "Please, **help Heero!!**"  
  
"He was never here." That hateful voice laughed.  
  
Duo's head snapped up and he saw the apparition of his love fade away, even the spilled blood beneath him vanishing.  
  
And Duo knew he had betrayed them all, betrayed his friends, betrayed *Heero*…  
  
"****HEERO!!NONONONONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! HEERO!!!****" Duo screamed.  
  
He was still screaming in utter despair when they came to drag him back to his cell.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
Heero ran silently through the base, a shadow flitting through the service passages and little used corridors. Quatre, Trowa and Wufei were attacking the base with their gundams for a diversion, helped by the Treize faction soldiers who were attacking from the inside. Everything was in chaos, and they probably wouldn't have paid any attention to Heero, but none of them were in any position to notice.  
  
//Duo's alive!// Was all that was going through his head. He was hurt badly, but alive. //Hold on, Duo! I'm coming!!//  
  
~~~~~~  
  
Duo crouched in his cell, banging his fractured wrist against the wall. The crude splint lay on the floor in pieces. The pain that screamed sharply up his arm at each blow of injured arm to hard surface was nothing next to the pain in his soul. He had betrayed them: gentle Quatre, calm Trowa, fierce Wufei… and his beautiful Heero.  
  
He deserved all the pain he could cause… he deserved to die.  
  
He could just see them lying in the rubble and ruins of the destroyed safehouse: Quatre sprawled beneath Trowa, who had tried to protect his koi to the end, blood soaking the Arabian's platinum blond hair, soaking Trowa's hair, turtleneck slashed, blood everywhere. Quatre's hand clutched around Trowa's neck, Trowa's hand cupping Quatre's cheek; their last actions in this world had been to touch each other.  
  
He could see Wufei sprawled, sword still grasped in his mangled hand, blood obscenely bright across his white tunic front, serene face slashed open, all the way to his midnight-dark hair.  
  
And Heero… he could see his Heero fallen against the ruin of one wall… rubble that had been one of the walls in Duo's room. His chest was a swirl of torn tissue and muscle, blood, ripped green fabric, shattered bone gleaming whitely deep in the wound. His eyes were open, blank, *dead*, blood smeared up one cheek, down his temple, messy brown bangs wet with blood and clinging to his skin.  
  
"I should give myself a new name," He sobbed. "Ore wa Shinigami no longer, I am now the Great Betrayer… betrayer of all I loved and hold dear." He slammed his injured hand harder against the wall, in self-punishment, hoping the pain he knew he deserved would blot out the images of his friends mangled bodies. He was rewarded by a sharp crack, and a fresh, thick wave of sickening pain swarmed up his arm. He fell against the wall, gasping and gagging, stars floating before his eyes … but still it wasn't enough to rid his mind of the image of Heero and the others dead bodies … dead because of him.  
  
"Heero…" He wept.  
  
There was a sudden scuffle and thump outside his cell door. Then the door slid open, a slim, heart-breakingly familiar figure silhouetted in the bright light coming from the hall.  
  
"Duo? Ouch, that looks bad." Heero's voice said calmly as he knelt and those intense cobalt eyes assessed his wounds.  
  
"It's another hallucination…" Duo breathed, tears still dripping down his bruised and bloodied face. "It's the drugs, I know it, 'cause I betrayed you and right now you're lying dead in a pool of blood in the destroyed safehouse, Quatre's, and Trowa's, and Wufei's bodies nearby." He babbled. "'Cause Ore wa Great Betrayer, and I deserve to die…"  
  
"Duo, don't say that!" Heero snapped, voice wavering –or would have wavered had he been anyone but Heero-the-Perfect-Soldier-Yuy. "We have to get out of here. The others and some Treize soldiers are making a diversion, but it won't last long, especially if they call in more mobile dolls…"  
  
"You're real…?!" Duo whimpered. He reached up to touch his koi's face…and his mangled wrist sent a whirlwind of agony through him in protest, and Duo let out a short scream as blackness and pain swallowed him up.  
  
As Duo passed out, Heero caught him, swept him up in his arms. He sped out of the cell, glad Duo was in his arms and safe, but knowing there were going to be dark days ahead, for Duo believed he had betrayed them and his emotional state would be fragile and unstable…  
  
//It'll be okay, Duo. You didn't truly betray us, you couldn't help it, you were drugged…I'm just so glad you're alive…oh, Duo…I love you so much…eien ni…//  
  
Ore wa Shinigami – I am Shinigami! (Boastful)  
  
End of Part Five 


	6. Eien Ni 6

Part Six of "Eien Ni" By Marie Whi Mitshue (6 of 6)  
  
May 30, 2002  
  
1 Author's Note: Last part, I swear! It, uh, didn't finish in the direction I thought it would, but these things happen when you write about the GW boys. They end up putting their two cents in, and next thing you know, the story is changed. Oh, well!  
  
Duo: "Don't you like the ending, Marie?" (All pouty, you can see he's about to go SD any second)  
  
Marie: "Yes, Duo! I do. But that wasn't how I was gonna end it."  
  
Wufei: (sticks his head in) "Oh? Then *how* were you gonna end it, onna? It's been unfinished for a loooooong time." (snickers) "Tell the truth, ne? You weren't ever gonna finish it!"  
  
Marie: (glares at Wu-Man) "You be careful, Justice Boy! I can finish that French Maid's uniform fic of yours very horribly!"  
  
Wufei: (turns a sickly shade of greenish-white, while Duo sniggers behind him) "You *wouldn't*!!!"  
  
Marie: "Try me, Wu-baby!"  
  
(Wufei meeps and retreats)  
  
The Red-Haired Devil: (looks after the retreating, pale Wufei) "Whassamatter wit' my Wu?!" (scowls at Marie) What did ya do to my sexy Dragon now?!"  
  
Marie: (holds her head) "Why did I ever introduce you to the wonderful world of GW? Who would have ever though you would end up as a diehard Wufei fan?!"  
  
Red: (the silliest of silly grins on face) "Wu-Bear is something, ain't he?" (wanders off in the direction Wufei went – if by wandering off I mean running as fast as she can while yelling "OH, WUUUUUU!!! WAIT FOR ME!!!!!!")  
  
Heero: "Not to interrupt, Marie, but can we get to the story before Duo explodes?" (points to Duo , who is fidgeting impatiently, wiggling like a fish on a hook)  
  
Marie: (sniggers) "Hey, Duo, what's wrong? You gotta pee?"  
  
Duo: (Glare of Death() ". . . "  
  
Heero: "OI!!!! That's *my* Glare of Death( !!!"  
  
Marie: (throws up hands) "Alright already!! Going on to the story!" (Heero and Duo are Glare of Death( -ing each other) "Guys? Guys?! GUYS!!!!" (they look over, finally)  
  
Duo: "What's wrong, Marie?" (Innocent Face on)  
  
Heero: (shrugs) "Are we ever gonna get to the story?"  
  
Marie: "ARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" (throws fic at them and stomps off)  
  
Duo: (picking up the scattered pages of the fic) "I wonder what she's mad about?" (looks after her )  
  
Heero: "Hn. She'll be fine. You know she'll be back soon, writing more fics. She's addicted to us. She can't stay mad at us."  
  
Duo: (shrugs and grins) "True. I am just *too* kawaii and sexy!"  
  
Heero: (glares)  
  
Duo: (rolls eyes) "Okay! *We* are *too* kawaii and sexy! Better?"  
  
Marie: (voice far off and exasperated) "OH, JUST READ THE DAMED THING!!!!!!!"  
  
Let me know if you liked it, hated it, had suggestions for improvement, whatever. No flames, though, please. kumiko_chan@gundamwing.net  
  
//thoughts//  
  
*emphasis* (the more **, the greater the emphasis)  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Duo Maxwell opened his eyes slowly. The pain in his body was muted; it felt like his body was wrapped in cotton. He didn't recognise the room he was in, but… his and Heero's possessions lay in a neat pile on the floor across from the bed.  
  
And a familiar, beloved warmth and weight was against his back, a familiar, beloved arm carefully snuggled along his hip.  
  
//Heero?!// He thought incredulously. //But I'm in a Romafeller interrogation cell! And Heero… is… dead?!// Duo's face paled and he swallowed a wave of sick pain as memory flooded back completely. //I… I betrayed them. And Heero came for me. He came for me… But I *did* betray them!//  
  
Duo froze, sure that the person – that *Heero* snuggled so achingly familiarly against him was an illusion. Surely Heero hated him for betraying the gundam pilots. If he moved, the sleeping Heero wrapped around him would vanish, and he'd be left with nothing but broken dreams.  
  
Then Heero stirred and sat up. "Duo?" His voice was rough with sleep and some emotion the trembling Duo couldn't identify, since his own emotions were clamouring at him. "Are you all right?"  
  
"H..Heero?" Duo gasped.  
  
Heero must've heard the confused, guilty, terrified pain in his voice. He slowly turned him to face him.  
  
Duo stared into that beloved, beautiful face, seeing only concern and worry and… and… *love?!*… in Heero's cobalt blue eyes. How could Heero still love him?! He saw no condemnation, no disgust, no hate. Duo had betrayed them all, and there was not a hint of ugly emotion anywhere within Heero's eyes, or on his face.  
  
Heero brushed hair out of Duo's face with a gentle hand – that's when Duo realised his hair was loose about him, and clean, free of blood and dirt and tangles. Heero must've washed it and brushed it out. Tears stung his eyes.  
  
"Heero… but I… be…be..trayed…." He couldn't continue; the tears slipped down his cheeks and he turned his face away from Heero, sure the Wing Zero pilot would sneer at him, or tell him he didn't love him anymore, no matter what promises of forever he had made.  
  
"Duo." Heero's hand beneath his chin turned his head back to face him. Duo gasped as Heero's mouth moved over his face, kissing away his tears. "I love you, Duo. Forever. When I though you were dead…"  
  
Now it was Heero's turn to sob, and Duo was unable to bear that sound of anguish coming from his beloved, from his Heero. He reached for him, ignoring the flare of dull, distant pain in his casted wrist, and along his ribs, and drew Heero tightly to him. His mouth settled against Heero's and both boys sighed. This was what each had been missing, this feeling of completion and rightness, of being whole.  
  
Heero kissed him back with trembling lips, and it was a kiss of tender love, utter completion, of belonging and rightness.  
  
"I love you, Heero." Duo whispered, when the kiss ended. "They… pumped me full of something… made me see things… I saw you, bleeding and broken, dying… and all I had to do to get them to save you was tell them… w..what they…wanted… t..to know…" Duo buried his face in his hands. "All I had to do… And I did it… and then… you were n..never there, it wasn't *you* and I had *betrayed* all of you and you were going to die because of what I did, I let my heart think for me, but how could I ignore what I t..thought were y..your screams, ignore the b..blood that dripped off you, I couldn't, I 'd rather die m..myself…"  
  
Heero lifted Duo's face, again kissed away the tears with aching tenderness. "You couldn't help it Duo. You… no one blames you. Not Quatre, not Trowa, not Wufei… not me. We love you, Duo. *I* love you. You were drugged and tortured. You are *NOT* to blame."  
  
Duo brushed the fingertips of his good hand over Heero's face like a blind man searching. "Why couldn't my body have broken before my heart and my spirit?!" Duo whispered. "I wasn't strong enough inside, and too strong outside. If my body had broken first…"  
  
"Then you'd be dead, and *I'd* be broken." Heero said firmly. "Ask the others what I was like when we though you dead. It wasn't pretty. I was basically the Unperfect Soldier… I spent most of my time holding something of yours and crying, or fighting even more maniacally than you do. You are my *whole world*, Duo Maxwell. Eien ni." Heero cupped Duo's cheek, pressed his mouth reverently to Duo's forehead, his hair, his cheek, his jawline.  
  
Still exhausted, Duo curled up to Heero, and at the Japanese pilot's gentle urging, closed his eyes.  
  
But his last thought before sleep claimed him was, //…betrayed them…//  
  
~~~  
  
Quatre sat at the kitchen table, sipping tea. His gentle, beautiful face was unusually grave, for he was remembering the broken state Duo had been in when they had rescued the American last night.  
  
He brushed golden bangs out of his eyes and sighed, his heart hurting for his dear friend. Then he started as a hand touched his shoulder, and twisted around in his chair.  
  
Trowa's one visible emerald eye blinked down at him, filled with soft emotion. "Gomen, tenshi. I didn't mean to startle you."  
  
"You didn't, Trowa. I was just think about…"  
  
"…Duo" Trowa finished for him. His handsome face was concerned beneath his long, razored bangs. "I know. Me, too."  
  
"So is there anything we can do to help him?" A third voice asked, and Trowa Quatre turned as Wufei walked into the kitchen.  
  
Quatre shook his head. "I don't know. The way he's feeling, like he betrayed us all, guilty and despairing… he might not be able to face us feeling like that."  
  
"That sums up his feelings pretty well." A fourth, tired voice interjected, and the other three pilots all tried to conceal their reactions as Heero slumped into a chair beside them. His worry, his love, his anger, all his feelings for Duo, and over the terrible things his lover had went through, was clear on his face. On Heero Yuy's normally unreadable, stony face.  
  
"How's Duo?" Wufei asked, as Quatre hastily poured tea for Heero.  
  
Heero sipped it absently. "He's asleep again. I just came down to grab a sandwich. I need to be there if he wakes..."  
  
Suddenly, there was a crash from upstairs, and an anguished shout of "*HEERO!!!!*"  
  
Heero bolted out of his chair and flew up the stairs, followed by the others instantly.  
  
Heero skidded to a stop in the doorway to his and Duo's room. Duo was stood in the middle of the room, dressed only in the faded pair of black boxers he'd been sleeping in, his hair loose and falling all over him in a cloud of chestnut. The sheet that had covered him was tangled on the floor behind him, the nightstand was toppled over, and broken pieces of the lamp that had been on it was scattered near it. Blood from a reopened wound made a dark crimson stain on the crisp white bandage on his chest. His face was pale, horrified, sick.  
  
Heero's handgun, which had been in the nightstand's drawer, was clenched in his right hand, his grip so tight his knuckles were white.  
  
Heero took all this in one swift glance. "Duo." He stepped slowly into the room then stopped, afraid to come any further lest he provoke the distraught boy in front of him into doing something terrible. "Duo, what are you doing?"  
  
"H… Heero…" Duo whispered brokenly. "I…"  
  
"Duo, what are you doing with my gun?" He asked carefully when Duo's voice trailed off.  
  
Duo looked at it as if he'd never seen a gun before. "I was… dreaming… I was so scared… and …and then… you weren't here… you left me alone… I knew you would… after what I… I did…" A tear trickled down his cheek, gleaming briefly as it caught the light.  
  
"Duo, I never left you. I went down to get something to eat. I was coming right back. I'm sorry I wasn't here when you awoke."  
  
Quatre, Trowa and Wufei stood in the doorway, not moving or speaking. Duo's eyes flickered over them, haunted and sad. "I'm *sorry*…" he whispered to them.  
  
"Duo, there's nothing to be sorry about." Wufei said briskly – but his jet- black eyes were anxious. "It could have happened to either one of us."  
  
Duo snorted and shook his head fiercely. "NO! Heero would have…d..died before breaking, you wouldn't have broke, it would have been a insult to your honour and strength, Trowa wouldn't –"  
  
"Any of us, Duo." Trowa said firmly. "Me, Quatre, even Justice Boy and the Perfect Soldier would have."  
  
"Duo, please give me the gun." Heero asked calmly.  
  
Duo looked at the gun in his trembling hand. Slowly he raised his arm, gun held before him for a long moment – then he placed it into Heero's outstretched hand.  
  
Heero took it, glanced at it quickly, saw that the safety was off, flicked it on and passed it to Trowa. Then he gathered the trembling American in his arms.  
  
Duo collapsed against Heero, burying his face against his neck, his hair spilling all over the Japanese pilot in a wave of chestnut silk. His quivering arms wrapped tightly around Heero's waist.  
  
"… forgive me…" Duo's muffled voice barely made it to the other three pilots' ears.  
  
Wufei cleared his throat. "There's nothing to forgive, Duo." Quatre and Trowa echoed him, and Quatre added, "We love you, Duo."  
  
"…thank you…"  
  
They left as Heero gathered up his koi, and laid him gently on the bed. He curled up with him, holding him close, stroking his hair. "Ai shiteru, Duo."  
  
Duo hiccuped a shuddering breath. "I love you too, Heero. But I still… feel like I betrayed you. I keep waiting for you guys to hate me."  
  
"Never. Did you think I was lying when I said I'd love you forever?" Heero kissed Duo's smooth cheek. "Nothing you do or say will ever cause the death of my love for you."  
  
"Heero…" Duo held Heero tight, almost desperately, as if he were trying to meld them into one person instead of two. "I love you."  
  
~~~  
  
Nights are the hardest. That's when the dreams come. The dreams of seeing my beautiful Heero bleeding to death on a cell floor before my eyes. The dreams of betraying our cause because of my love. The dreams of realising that I'd been tricked, that Heero had never been in danger – until I had betrayed him and the others. The dreams of their deaths, because of me.  
  
The nights are the worst.  
  
But when I wake up in a cold sweat, trembling, or on the really bad nights, when I wake up screaming, Heero is there. He holds me close, strokes my hair, tells me he loves me over and over, in both Japanese and English. He calms me, reassures me – and then he loves me, tenderly, gently, passionately.  
  
They took me to see my empty grave. Heero thought it was a *bad* idea, but I insisted. And I admit, when I saw the words on the headstone – Honoured Soldier, Cherished Friend, and especially the Immortal Beloved – and the flowers slowly dying on the grass, I nearly fell apart. I knew what each of those flowers meant – it had been I that had taught Heero that flowers had meanings and what they were. But those words – Immortal Beloved. They hit me somewhere deep inside my heart, deep inside my soul. Heero *meant* it when he said eien ni. Nothing will keep him from loving me forever. *Nothing*. I know this now. When I saw those words, I knew.  
  
So going to my grave had been a good idea. It made me realise that our love was True Love. You think that happens everyday? Hell no!  
  
There is no disgust, no condemnation, no contempt in their eyes. Only understanding, friendship, sympathy. . . love. I can see that now. They do not blame me, and slowly, I am learning not to blame myself. It might take a while, and the dreams will still come, but Quatre, Trowa and Wufei are with me. Heero is with me. So let the dreams and the guilt come. With Heero beside me, and my friends behind me, I can do *anything*.  
  
That is the power, and the strength, of love.  
  
~~Owari~~  
  
Onna – woman  
  
Kawaii – cute  
  
Tenshi – angel  
  
Owari – The End  
  
Another Note: Okay, I don't know why I suddenly went into first person for Duo's spiel at the end. He just tromped up behind me and tickled me with the end of his braid until I wrote it the way he wanted it. (hehehehe)  
  
Oh, and part 6 is for The Red-haired Devil, who read parts 1-5, asked for the next part and almost murdered me when I said I hadn't finished it yet. So this part is for her.  
  
Oh, the conversation with Duo, Heero, Wu, and Red at the beginning? Just chalk it up to lottsa caffeine, little sleep, and a severe addiction to Gundam Wing.  
  
Heero: "I *knew* you're addicted to us" (smirks)  
  
Marie: (cradles head in hands) "Heero, go away. It's three in the buggering morning, and I gotta get up early!"  
  
Heero: (grumbles) "Fine! You don't want me around! (leaves and slams the door behind him. Glass ornaments fall off the shelf and smash into a gazillion pieces)  
  
Marie: " Wonderful. Even the Perfect Soldier can act like a spoiled teenager!" (shakes her head, sighs and starts picking up glass) 


End file.
